On December 13, Ambassador John Bolton, President Donald J. Trump’s national security advisor, delivered the administration’s long-awaited encyclical on Africa before an overflow audience at the Heritage Foundation. In a typically blunt manner, Ambassador Bolton characterized China’s policies toward Africa as rapacious and neo-colonial, expressing concern that China would use its leverage over states heavily indebted to it in return for a monopolistic hold on the continent’s natural resource bounty.

The European Commission has announced that that migrant and refugee arrivals in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea number 134,004 in as of December 5, 2018, down from 179,536 during the same period in 2017. The year that saw the highest number of arrivals, 1,015,078, was 2015. While Italy experienced the biggest drop, arrivals actually increased in Spain and Greece. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan have remained the largest countries of origin since 2014; since then, almost one million Syrians have sought asylum in the EU/Europe

On December 10, the Financial Times published a fascinating article by Neil Munshi, dateline Maiduguri, on how honest businesses have adapted to operating in areas affected by Boko Haram. Specifically, Munshi cites Coca-Cola, Unilvever, and MTN, and telecommunications company. Since multinational forces dislodged Boko Haram from holding territory in 2015, the three have expanded their operations and their markets in Nigeria’s northeast.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa selected Shamila Batohi to the new national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) for a single ten-year term. As NDPP, Batohi will head the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which, as its name implies, determines who to prosecute and who not to prosecute on behalf of the state.

On December 3, police officers killed six terrorists after a security patrol was ambushed in eastern Burkina Faso. Reports from the country in the past year point to a worrying sign that the spread of Islamist terrorism continues unabated in the West African country.

There are numerous proposals for police reform in Nigeria. One such reform, which has the support of some governors, is the creation of state police forces to replace or augment the NPF. In the north, vigilante groups, most notably members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, have an established presence in their communities and can be effective instruments of law enforcement, though they are not entirely accountable.

In Nigeria, the devastating effects of climate change are in full view. Sea levels in the Gulf of Guinea are rising at one of the world’s fastest rates, a new University of Maryland study shows that the Sahara has expanded about 10 percent since 1920, and natural disasters appear to be on the rise. In 2017, flooding affected an estimated 250,000 Nigerians; in 2016, 92,000 were displaced. At the other end of the climate spectrum, up to 40 percent of the country’s land area is estimated now to be subject to periodic draught.